Deleting "as of a"; adding direful and Titanic

Suddenly, with  a crash, as of a mountain of rock torn asunder....  --May 1853 Scenes Beyond the Western Border

Revisions to the May 1853 installment of "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" in the Southern Literary Messenger include deletion of the simile introduced with the expression, "as of a...." Cutting "as of a" transforms the metaphorical "mountain of rock" into literal "rocks," vividly re-figured after revision as "Titanic."

But suddenly, with a direful crash amid the Titanic rocks....  --Scenes and Adventures in the Army

Also added in revision, along with "Titanic": the adjective "direful" that describes the "crash" which has been made a more immediate and literal, less metaphorical sound, by deleting "as of a." Deleted or added, the verbal elements of this fascinating revision site are all exampled in Herman Melville's writing. The words direful and Titanic feature with particular significance in Moby-Dick (1851) and Pierre (1852), respectively.

AS OF A

And now, loud above the roar of the sea, was suddenly heard a sharp, splintering sound, as of a Norway woodman felling a pine in the forest.  --Mardi: And A Voyage Thither

Touched by the breath of the bereaved Aurora, every sunrise that statue gave forth a mournful broken sound, as of a harp-string suddenly sundered, being too harshly wound.  --Pierre; or, The Ambiguities

DIREFUL
The word direful occurs 10x in Moby-Dick; or The Whale for example:

white curds of the whale's direful wrath --Moby Dick

Borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave; --The Town-Ho's Story

That direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary recluseness.--Ahab's Leg

and once in Pierre; or, The Ambiguities:

 not entirely untempered to human nature are the most direful blasts of Fate. 

TITANIC
4x in Pierre; or The Ambiguities

a fearful pile of Titanic bricks 

 this Inferno of his Titanic vision.

the mountain once called Delectable, but now styled Titanic.

But now at last since the very blood in his body had in vain rebelled against his Titanic soul;

Such was the wild scenery—the Mount of Titans,

Related post:

• Memnon and Mount Pike